Recreation accounts for more jobs on federal land in Idaho than mining, grazing and energy

The Bureau of Land Management used to be ridiculed as the “Bureau of Livestock and Mining” for the two groups that had the most political clout over how the agency was run.

But a new study of the Department of Interior’s economic effects in Idaho shows there are far more hunting guides, river rafters and others who cater to recreational users on these lands than there are miners and cattlemen.

The BLM, which has 11.9 million acres in Idaho, accounts for all but about 600,000 acres of Interior’s lands in the state, mostly desert and canyon lands at lower elevations.